From left, Brett Polegato as Rodrigo and Andrea Carè as Don Carlo in Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Photo by Tim Matheson.

The Cast of Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver. Photo: Tim Matheson.

Joni Henson as Elisabeth and Andrea Carè as Don Carlo in Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver. Photo: Tim Matheson.

The Cast of Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver. Photo: Tim Matheson.

Joni Henson as Elisabeth in Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Photo by Tim Matheson.

From left, Peter Volpe as King Philip and Brett Polegato as Rodrigo in Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver. Photo: Tim Matheson.

The cast of Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver. Photo: Tim Matheson.

From left, Andrea Carè as Don Carlo; Brett Polegato as Rodrigo in Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Photo by Tim Matheson.

The cast of Vancouver Opera’s Don Carlo, which opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver. Photo: Tim Matheson.

Vancouver Opera ends its 2013/14 season with a lavish production of a big, important work: Verdi’s Don Carlo opens a four-performance run at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday. Don Carlo is Verdi opera on the grand scale, and a landmark in the great composer’s development. Yet four decades have gone by since the work was last heard in Vancouver.

Italian opera was core in the early days of Vancouver Opera and Don Carlo was a particularly ambitious choice for the young company in 1973. To understand the challenges and complexities of staging the work, we need to know that Verdi’s story of ambition, love and generational conflict was something of a fraught undertaking for the composer.

In the 1860s Verdi was the undisputed star of the Italian opera world. He had grown rich from successful works and made himself known as a political activist. Verdi later realized that to keep abreast of artistic developments, he would have to rethink his operatic art. Asked to write a work for Paris, he turned to a 1787 political play by Friedrich Schiller, drawn from history but not noticeably true to it.

Don Carlo, heir presumptive to the Spanish throne of Phillip II, has daddy issues: for diplomatic purposes, his sweetheart Princess Elizabeth of France has been married off to dear old dad. Much intrigue ensues. (Lest a modern audience feel superior to melodrama based on issues of ambition with romantic complications, consider the current mega-hits Game of Thrones and House of Cards.)

When the French version didn’t come off quite as intended, Verdi chopped off the first of the five acts and re-tooled the whole work into Italian, continuing to tweak the score for years.

I chatted with two of the stars of the VO production — mezzo Mary Phillips, who sings the role of Spanish Princess Eboli, and this production’s Elisabetta, soprano Joni Henson — asking them for insights into this complicated but deeply rewarding opera. Both had the advantage of having appeared in a Canadian Opera Company production of the longer Paris version.

“I sang two performances of the five-act version in French,” says Henson. “This is the four-act version, in Italian. At first I thought it might be quite hard to switch languages, but in rehearsal I discovered that the notes were still in my head and the lyrics had faded, so it was relatively easy to learn the Italian.”

I wondered if other inherent problems keep Don Carlo off the Verdi shortlist of foolproof hits.

“It’s very sad that it’s not done more often,” agrees Henson. “Of course it’s an extremely big production to pull off, with a huge chorus, and you particularly need singers who can last. I hope to do this role many times. People told me I was going to like the Italian version more because it’s so much easier to sing. Maybe the main difficulty is that people fight over which version to do.”

Phillips has sung the role of Eboli several times for other companies, and for her the central thing about Don Carlo is the logistics of mounting the piece.

“Verdi’s Il Trovatore requires four of the greatest singers in the world — this opera takes six,” she notes. “It’s demanding casting. Then of course, it’s a tragedy, there really aren’t any fun parts to it. And it’s expensive: the orchestra’s big, the costumes are very big, and the sets can be costly.”

Intriguingly, Phillips hints that this isn’t necessarily a “what you see is what you get” proposition: despite all the pomp and theatricality, the work is one of unexpected intimacy.

Henson concurs. “It actually is a love story, from Elizabeth’s point of view. Unfortunately, in this version we don’t get the first act, so we don’t actually get to see them fall in love. We singers have to try to convey the fact that there is this deep psychological connection underlying the political situation.”

Both Henson and Phillips are known for their Verdi and Wagner roles, so I asked them to weigh in on the so-called Wagner influences so beloved by scholars. Neither considers this especially important. Phillips admits that you do hear the occasional motif (“But nothing like the leitmotifs in the Ring!”), yet insists that even with a beefed-up orchestra, the keywords are lightness and intimacy.

Henson is on the same page: “This is one of Verdi’s last operas. I’ve also done Falstaff and Otello, and in Otello you really do hear a lot of Wagner.”

She insists that style is less important than technical mastery: “Both Wagner and Verdi write lines so well for the singer, right from the beginning right through to the end. My big duet with the tenor comes at the very end, so there we both are singing our hearts out at 11 p.m. But that dramatic line carries you through.”

Given a decidedly political plot, Verdi gives extra heft to male voices in Don Carlo.

“There are so many low male voices in this opera,” agrees Phillips. “How many operas do you get where you have a really powerful duet between two basses? They’re all conniving how to gain even more power than they already have.”

Does Verdi give his female characters their due? “Oh, yeah! I can’t think of a better role than Eboli,” enthuses Phillips. “It’s all about the relationships between these characters. It’s very specific how these people interact. Once in a while you have to think about a high note coming up, but otherwise you just remember the text and the story.”

Henson doesn’t feel shortchanged either. “I love the scope I have in singing Elizabeth. I feel that she is trying very hard to stay true to being the queen, struggling against her urges to be with Don Carlo. In this version, I’m being rather more demonstrative than a queen would ever really be. She’s a very strong character, very gutsy, and I like playing strength, pure strength rather than understated strength.”

How would they sum up the audience appeal of Don Carlo?

Henson: “It’s a great opera for everyone. The music is absolutely incredible. In every rehearsal I hear other people’s parts which I don’t know all that well and stop dead, thinking, ‘That’s so beautiful.’ Also, the story is not as ‘out there’ as in some operas — the libretto is very well structured.”

Phillips: “Come to see it because it’s going to be especially well acted. We’re telling a well-crafted story made fantastic by Verdi’s wonderful score, by the nuances of his music. If you’ve never seen an opera before, this would be a good one to start with.”

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